Brooklyn Bridge CSA is run by a Core Group made up of volunteers. Together, we make sure everything from distribution to events happen, and that all of your membership needs are met. We got involved because of our individual passions and talents, and we invite you to get in touch if you would like to lend your talents, passion, or time to helping our CSA run.
- Are you a chef? We would love a Cooking Coordinator on our team.
- Are you a good facilitator or an expert on a topic relevant to our CSA? We would love some help brainstorming new programs.
- Not sure of your talent area, but simply want to help out? We could always use it. Be in touch!
About us
Joelle Berman – Joelle grew up harvesting basil and tomatoes from her mother’s garden in preparation for making what amounted to a winter’s worth of pasta sauce. She first learned about CSAs years ago at the Brooklyn Food Conference, and has since fallen completely in love with the sustainable food movement. As a member of the Brooklyn Bridge CSA Core Group, she helps liaise with New York City-based food organizations like Just Food and Hazon in order to provide resources and opportunities for our CSA. She lives in Brooklyn Heights and loves swiss chard, cherry tomatoes, and beet greens, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to write a bio that includes her favorite vegetables.
In addition to serving on BBCSA’s core group, Joelle works full-time as a communications manager at a nonprofit organization, practices yoga as consistently as time allows, and plays on a dodgeball team called the Dodgeballsamic Vinaigrettes.
Shari Rueckl – After moving to Brooklyn from the Midwest many years ago, Shari was able to join a CSA (the Brooklyn Bridge CSA of course!) and has been a core member since the beginning of the first season. Even though there are farms everywhere in her hometown, it wasn’t until moving to New York that she truly realized the value of good, fresh food. She is very interested in the sustainable food movement and finds the BBCSA a great way to stay involved with it. Shari composes the newsletter for the CSA each week and enjoys learning about all aspects of food justice as well as finding recipes and local events to feature in the newsletter. She looks forward to Farmer Fred’s fresh veggies each week, especially kohlrabi and beets!
Matthew Keesan – Matthew grew up in western New York and didn’t know until he was much older that getting milk straight from the farmer was an anachronistic privilege. He came to Brooklyn to create a cooperatively-owned bed and breakfast, which has featured Fred’s amazing CSA vegetables since 2011. He was responsible for what was once the internet’s most popular button, and now helps keep the CSA’s website and technologies running.
Julie Kanfer – I have been a member of Brooklyn Bridge CSA since 2010, and still can’t believe how lucky I am to have access to such fresh, gorgeous, organic local produce. Every Wednesday is a colorful adventure! Growing up on Long Island, I had no clue Sang Lee Farms was just one hour from my childhood home, but its fruits and vegetables are now a vital part of my life. I believe faithfully in eating with the seasons, and in supporting local farms to reduce my carbon footprint. I am always so excited for CSA to start and super bummed when it is over, but I relish the cycle each year. It has also been cool to watch my kids learn to appreciate the bounty, and help me turn it into various delicious snacks and meals. When I’m not working on the CSA newsletter, I’m producing health and medical radio shows on SiriusXM’s “Doctor Radio” channel and writing for our “Vital Signs” podcast.
Katie Tsuji – Volunteer Coordinator – pic and bio coming soon!
Colette Lui – Registration Coordinator – pic and bio coming soon!
Emeritus
Marina Berger
Marina was born in Queens and raised in the suburbs just outside of New York City. She graduated from New York University with a degree in Art History, and worked in the arts for six years until her passion for good food dragged her to her rightful place in the kitchen. In June of 2009, Marina graduated from the Chef’s Training Program at The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health & Culinary Arts, and has been pleasing palates as a Personal Chef around New York ever since.
In 2009, Audrey Sasson of Pursue: Action for a Just World recruited Marina and Avi Flamholz to start the Brooklyn Bridge CSA. Pursue sponsored them to attend the Hazon Food Conference that year, where they learned the ins and outs of starting a CSA.
Nora Chovanec
Nora was raised in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and moved to Brooklyn a year and a half ago from Mexico City. When she left Oregon to study Photography in Boston, she realized how lucky she had been to grow up with easy access to fresh, local food and to actually know her farmers. From that revelation, she became involved in many food access initiatives in her local community and invested in the farm to table movement in the public school lunch program.
As an artist and designer, much of her work focuses on the environment and agriculture (if you are interested you can see a project she did on corn farmers in Mexico and the Midwest www.norachovanec.com). Nora currently works for the artist and architect Maya Lin on her environmental conservation multimedia memorial—the What is Missing? Foundation. She joined the Brooklyn Bridge CSA because she loves the challenge of cooking up a full haul from the farm every week and because fresh carrots and kale are rad!
David Chung
David’s family moved to Brooklyn in 2004 and have loved the borough ever since. He was raised in the Bronx and met his wife at Columbia University. He has three kids and a grandson, and his youngest just graduated from college. He is an active volunteer at the Brooklyn Heights Food Pantry.
David’s interest in joining the Brooklyn Bridge CSA is based on a number of factors. He left the corporate world after surviving leukemia and trained at the French Culinary Institute to become a personal chef. His wife, Lily, has been an organic food proponent since the 80’s and helped run an organic food co-op in NJ. David’s younger daughter is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Gastronomy (specializing in sustainable food and local sourcing).
Andi de Saro
Andi is a recent transplant to Brooklyn. First on her list after moving here? Becoming a member of the Brooklyn Bridge CSA. According to Andi, it’s is an amazing way for her family to become a part of something that not only benefits her family’s health, but also supports a local farm in a much more intimate way. As a member of the core group, she is grateful for the opportunity to be directly involved in her community. It heightens her passion for becoming a part of something that benefits not only herself but also her neighbors. She hopes to make the already-present awesomeness of the Brooklyn Bridge CSA a little bit more awesome!
Andi grew up in Northern NJ, and attended art school at S.U.N.Y Purchase for furniture design. She now works as a manager in a small biotech company with customers that span across several therapeutic areas. It may sound dry, but it creates a lot of unique challenges that she really enjoys solving.
Melissa Extein
Melissa has been part of the Brooklyn Bridge CSA since its early days of meeting and brainstorming in the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) offices back at the beginning of 2010. Her day job involves working at AJWS as the associate director of grants for knowledge management. She’s also an organizational psychologist who occasionally teaches on leadership and emotional intelligence and consults to non-profits. Based in Carroll Gardens, she fills the rest of her time working on outreach and developing community partnerships for the BBCSA, serving on the board of JFREJ, gardening, biking, climbing, dancing, traveling, and trying to convince herself to eat lettuce for breakfast. She’s been a convert to the world of CSAs and an avid proponent of them ever since a friend asked her to pick up his share six years ago (thanks, friend!). Originally from South Florida, Melissa migrated to NYC almost ten years ago and is happy to now call Brooklyn home.
Sasha Feldstein
Sasha is one of the programming coordinators and a founding member of the CSA. She works at an international development organization and lives with three roommates in Cobble Hill. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she loves anything that involves being outdoors in the sunshine: running, biking, hiking and practicing her lifelong goal of being able to do handstands. She grew up refusing to eat anything green (she would even forego the green herbs in marinara sauce for ketchup on her spaghetti) and now can’t imagine not loving veggies, especially Farmer Fred’s brussel sprouts, broccoli, asparagus and that crazy alien-looking cauliflower (just wait and see).
Shayna Makaron
Shayna grew up in Connecticut and attributes her love for produce to her mother’s compulsively balanced meals. (She didn’t know it was abnormal to eat fruit as a dinner appetizer until she went to college.) She joined Brooklyn Bridge CSA in 2013 and started working with the core team to plan CSA events after her first season. She’s especially excited to have found people who think composting and watching 8 straight hours of TEDx Talks are good ways to spend a Saturday afternoon. When she’s not eating Fred’s fresh vegetables, she’s eating everything else New York has to offer as an account manager at a food startup called ZeroCater. Sometimes she makes time for things other than food, namely wandering around Brooklyn and petting other people’s dogs.
Misa Migawa and Jeff Hutchison
Misa and Jeff hated to see food go to waste! Therefore they were the dynamic duo that were our EFP coordinators! They made sure any veggies and fruit that were left over got to First Presbyterian Church and to members of our community that needed it.
Nicole Dooskin
Nicole became a core member of the Brooklyn Bridge CSA in its initial season, attracted to its dual mission of local seasonal produce and social justice. She discovered her love of organic family farms during a summer of volunteering with WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms); after spending five days harvesting (and eating) organic strawberries, she has never eaten a conventionally one again! When not organizing the CSA’s volunteers, Nicole works as an urban planner focused on building great waterfronts for New York City. She eagerly looks forward to cherry tomato season every year and loves that Farmer Fred provides four different color carrots to choose from.
Maddy Milan
Maddy Milan grew up helping her mum grow tomatoes, berries, and more in her family’s back garden in England. She first got involved with sustainable, local food in the U.S. in 2012 when she joined the Dumbo/Vinegar Hill CSA (another Sang Lee CSA) and fell in love with Fred’s tomatoes. She recently left her career in branding and fundraising for nonprofits to pursue a life in urban agriculture. She grows veggies on her roof, loves to eat, and is always looking for advice on what to do with too many radishes.
Julia Ryan
Julia’s a long-time Brooklyn heights resident who strongly believes in local community involvement, compassion for all living beings and healthy food for all. She loves eating Fred’s vegetables as much as possible and practices yoga daily. She helps organize our CSA registration.
Shelby Saucier
Growing up in a small town in Maine, Shelby had the privilege of being by nature and a constant supply of home-grown veggies. After graduate school, Shelby and her partner moved to Acadia National Park to enjoy the outdoors for a year before moving to Brooklyn in 2016. Being so accustomed to natural, organic, and local produce, it was an easy decision to join the Brooklyn Bridge CSA. As volunteer coordinator, Shelby organizes each volunteer so every member of the CSA gets a chance to participate in the farm-to-table process. Fun fact about Shelby: she co-founded a cooperative house right here in Brooklyn that enjoys two full shares of Farmer Fred’s produce per season. Shelby also enjoys organizing events and you can often find her at Just Food workshops and Brooklyn Boulders for CRUX climbing nights.
Brooklyn Bridge CSA 